admin | September 27, 2009
Peter Tudebode was a Poitevin priest who was part of the First Crusade, perhaps with forces of the count of Toulouse. He wrote his account, the Historia de Hieroslymitano Itinere, by at least 1111, which was after many of the other important accounts of the First Crusade were written. Tudebode offers some new [...]
admin | September 27, 2009
THE SUMMONS
After Fulcher’s preface, which seems admirably suited to this account, the chapter deals with the call for Crusaders from the West. The condition of Europe on the eve of the Crusade is too large a subject to be treated adequately here, but Fulcher’s brief summary contains a very suggestive survey of the situation and [...]
admin | September 27, 2009
Robert Guiscard was one of several brothers who came to Italy from Normandy to work as mercenaries and gain their fortune. After arriving in Italy in 1046, he served in several campaigns before taking the place of his brother Humphrey as Duke of the Normans. His power steadily grew, as he became involved [...]
admin | September 27, 2009
As Christian forces gained more lands from the various Ta’ifa kingdoms in the eleventh-century, the Muslim kings turned to Yusuf b. Tashufin, the ruler of the Almoravids of North Africa. His forces went into Spain, and at the Battle of Zallaqa, defeated the forces of Alfonso (also called Alphonso) VI. This victory not [...]
admin | September 27, 2009
The Tibyan is considered to be one of the most important sources of information about events in Muslim controlled Spain (al-Andalus) during the eleventh century, when the peninsula was divided up into various Ta’ifa states. This work is an autobiography by ‘Abd Allah bin Buluggin, who was the Amir of the Taifa kingdom of Granada [...]
admin | September 27, 2009
St. Margaret of Scotland (c.1045-1092) was the granddaughter of the English king Edmund Ironside, and was married to Malcolm III, King of Scotland. In her position as Queen, Margaret promoted religious works, including the founding several churches. Her biographer, Turgot, bishop of St. Andrews (d.1115) mentions many of her pious deeds, including her [...]
admin | September 27, 2009
Theodricus Monachus’s De antiquitate regum Norwagiensium is one of the oldest historical works of Norwegian history. It is a Latin account of the kings of Norway from Hardaldr harfaagri (around the ninth century), to Sigurð Magnusson, who died in 1130. The author was probably a Benedictine monk who penned this work in the [...]
admin | September 27, 2009
Before the conquest of England in 1066 William, duke of Normandy, spent most of his reign embroiled in disputes with his vassals and with Henry I, king of France. William of Jumieges provides accounts of two battles fought between the Normans and the French. The first engagement came about after Henry tried to [...]
admin | September 27, 2009
In 1044, Geoffrey Martel, count of Anjou, besieged the city of Tours. Theobald and Stephen, sons of Odo II of Blois, attempted to relieve the city, but were defeated by Geoffrey at the Battle of Nouy on August 21, 1044. Rodulfus Glaber, who died around 1046, gives an interesting account of this [...]
admin | September 27, 2009
Written around 1200 AD, the Orkneyinga Saga is the only major source of information for Orkney Islands in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In the episode below, rule over the islands is shared by two earls: Rognvald Brusason and Thorfinn Sigurdarson, but the two have a falling out, leading to a naval battle in [...]
